Ford’s Jaguar luxury car unit will report a full-year 2002 operating loss of about $500 million, Ford president and chief operating officer Nick Scheele said at the Paris motor show, according to reports from Reuters and the Detroit News.
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Scheele reportedly said that the loss, most of it to come in the fourth quarter, was partly due to a delay in the launch of Jaguar’s new flagship XJ model, to ensure that there would be no quality problems with the aluminium bodied car. The reports cited Scheele as saying that the delay would cost Jaguar 2002 revenue from 10,000 to 15,000 new XJs at $US75,000 each which would not now be booked until next year.
According to the reports, Scheele also said that Ford had held back production of Jaguar’s smaller X-Type model to reduce inventories to about 55 days’ supply but did not say what the supply was or what the inventories were before the halt in production.
The Detroit News said that heavier than expected incentives needed to shift new X-types in the US had added to the Jaguar loss.
According to Reuters, Scheele said that despite the loss at Jaguar Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, which also includes Land Rover, Volvo and Aston Martin, was on track to deliver strong revenue growth as part of Ford’s multi-year-turnaround plan after the company’s 5.45 billion loss in 2001.
However, the Detroit News report said that Volvo, acquired by Ford in 1999, was geared to be building 600,000 cars by mid-decade yet is on track this year to sell 22,000 fewer cars in 2002 than last year.
Land Rover, acquired in 2000, is still making a loss despite a six-month order backlog for its top-of-the-line Range Rover, the Detroit News added.
